“My Uncle Harry”

Written by Edward Albray (2003)

My uncle Harry was born on the 9th of February 1930. He was born at 132 Whitworth Road, Gosport, Hampshire. He went to Leesland School in Whitworth Road, Gosport. The school he went to was right opposite to where he was born. The school was built in 1894 and is still there today. When he was eleven years old, he went to a senior school called Privett School. The war was still going on then, and most of the teachers had been called up into the army or navy. That only left six teachers including the headmaster. If he or any of the other kids played about in school, he would get the cane. His first job was with a building firm doing repair work to buildings that had been damaged during the war. There was mostly older men working there. This was because the younger ones were still in the forces. When he reached his sixteenth birthday he was apprenticed to be a carpenter and he joined after he finished his apprenticeship. He was twenty when he got called up to do his National Service for two years in the army. When he had finished his two years in the army, he went back to the firm he was apprenticed for two years. Then he moved about on different jobs for a couple of years. Then he and my grandad opened a hardware shop in Whitworth Road. He worked there until he had a heart attack and was forced to retire. His hobbies are stamp collecting, reading and watching TV. He said the war was very exciting, having bombs and guns going off. It was scarey when bombs were coming down. There was about two or three men killed. Bombs landed in people's back gardens and one of them scorched the paint on the back door of his house.

Credits

This brief life story of Harry Douglas Albray was written in 2003 by his great nephew, Edward Albray for a school project.